Is Illidan evil?

[Nujist]

He was obviously chaotic neutral.

[DarkTZeratul]

I wouldn't say he's evil, per say, but he's definitely not good. Everything he does, he does for himself; the only other person he genuinely cares about is Tyrande. Even when he does good acts, he's doing them for very selfish reasons (i.e. power, making himself look good, etc).

[Verdugo]

Throughout Burning Crusade he seemed to be driven further and further into true villain territory. In Frozen Throne he seemed to have nobler motives - destroying the Lich King, helping the naga and blood elves deal with magical addiction, overthrowing the Burning Legion (in Outland at least).

But by BC he'd gone crazy-flakes. I have to wonder what his motives really were by the end of things - he'd been working for Kil'jaden by the end of Frozen Throne.

He was trying to destroy Lich King, under threat of demon lord and was using artefact that was ripping the world apart. He helped Blood Elves because he saw potential in them, not because he was kind. And outland? He needed a place to hide once he failed.

[Zaelsino]

Depends. He ended up becoming a rather vicious tyrant, making enemies out of potential allies and destroying anything he couldn't enslave.

He had a fairly good excuse, I suppose, what with being on Kil'jaeden's shit list (aka, massively paranoid about retribution) and that skull of his whispering sweet nothings in his ear.

[ElfinHilon10]

No he is not evil. And if you look at the PTR scenarios, it looks like we got ourselves a black temple scenario. I'm so excited! DON'T TEASE ME BLIZZARD!

[rogueMatthias]

No he is not evil. And if you look at the PTR scenarios, it looks like we got ourselves a black temple scenario. I'm so excited! DON'T TEASE ME BLIZZARD!

Yeah I'd laugh if at the end of one scenario we go up and res him. Pretty cool for Scenarios trying them out in different expansions and places though, adds a bit more flavour to them.

As for the original question -

No, he's not evil.
Pretty much everything he did, he did for the greater good. I know people will say "the road to hells paved with good intentions" but SOMEbody had to do these things to save everybody, and Malfurion was always too much of a hippy to act outside of the box. IRL, it's the equivalent of someone getting a gun and learning to shoot with it to save a village from invading gangs. Then once they've made sure he's fought them all off, the village expels him because guns are bad m'kay.

As for him in Outland, there are some really interesting articles about that cover his actions there. He's actually involved SO little in the storylines of BC, (for instance, we even know "his" attack on Shatrah was led by Kaelthas working for the burning legion and he may have had no clue about it) that most of his "villainy" and inanity we all get from hearsay and from people with MASSIVE alterior motives (like Akama and Maiev). There's not actually a lot of real evidence for his misdeed there to justifty us having killed him there.

[DarkTZeratul]

Pretty much everything he did, he did for the greater good.

Pretty much everything he did, he did for his own greater good. That his goals sometimes aligned with our own does nothing to diminish the fact that he was more than willing to disobey orders, consort with dangerous and often evil powers, and even kill innocent people to achieve his own ends.

You want an example? Just look at Nendis. In no way can you argue that the destruction of a fishing village and the massacre of all its inhabitants was even remotely "for the greater good."

[Deleted]

He is an perfect example to men around the world, he lost his lover to his brother, and when he tried to win her back, he became more and more corrupted until his brother banished him forever

[Deleted]

He's not evil, just misguided and misunderstood. Everything he did was for the good of his people, he just couldn't see the negative consequences of his actions.

-Recreating the well - So his people would have a fount of energy to fight the Burning Legion should it return
-Drinking the demon blood - To become strong enough to fight the Legion
-Using the skull of Guldan - To destroy the Lich King

All the points you made are wrong, there is a common factor in all of his actions, to gain more power.

That's what Illidan truly his, a powermonger that thinks he can get the girl by gain more and more power.

[sam86]

For selfish purpose? Let's start...
He helped Tyrande only for caring for her, he was going to wipe the Legion from Kalimdor anyway and Arthas gave him a bonus skull to increase his power (he was already there with no idea of it), he didn't ask for apology or anything, he heard world in danger from his love and went to rescue instantly, what does his brother do? Banish him ... smart
In TFT he asks Naga for help to stop the Lich King, the biggest threat on Azeroth, if someone pays me to get a 100% right job done, why I'd refuse payment? Still Maeiv hunts him non stop, makes his plan to end LK fails, Malfurion treat him like crap and banish him from Azeroth (check the dialogue: Illidan was ready to forgive and forget everything to get things right, of course that isn't enough for Mal to forgive him... or maybe afraid on Tyrande from Illidan, since until today Furion has no idea why Tyrande chose him over Illidan)
In TFT again after being taking outland, KJ threatens him, he returns to stop LK again alone, and sadly fail to end his tries

In vanilla wow it was clearly said his mind is slipping away to madness, he repeats the duel everyday in his head but as him winning instead of losing, very sad
In BC we enter Outland to find out he is building a well of eternity to fight the burning legion, Kael betrays him and use illidari forces to attack shattrath, creating the scryers faction and halving the blood elves power, the illidari become a real threat to the burning legion to a degree that demons started to rebel against burning legion and joining the illdari (quests in shadowmoon valley), however
Only forum posters on official server will remember that, when a gnome asked on forums why we kill illidan, he get a blue response "because he drop epics", it resulted in outrage of bans to anyone who talked about that point for quite long time, yes we got official blizzard answer we kill illidan not because he is evil (because he isn't) or mad (he is), but because he drop epics

We kill Illidan because he was fighting the burning legion and doing a fine job with no stupid morals holding him back, he get the job done at any cost, works for greater good, but he happens to have epics so we killed him to get loot

[Jonuts]

There's not actually a lot of real evidence for his misdeed there to justifty us having killed him there.

He enslaves people. End of argument. He deserved his death. Pity. Illidan going evil was the only thing about Burning Crusade I didn't like. Homeboy should have been leading the charge against the Burning Legion. I'll agree that pre-BC, he was definitely not evil, just not the 'nicest' guy around. His own people royally screwed him and made him the evil bastard we had to put down. So in remembrance of Illidan, kill every night elf you see! HUZZAH!

[Deleted]

The fact remains that every action illidan has taken has been (in his eyes at least) to save his people at ANY cost. He will do anything to fight the legion even going as far as taking power no mortal should have in his efforts to fight them.

Sure he broke every taboo in the nelf book but every single time its been to fight for his people not against them. Not evil by a longshot

[BoysBoysBoys]

The only time I ever considered Illidan being a good guy doing bad guy acts was during Frozen Throne.

Otherwise using the Skull of Gul'dan for himself, Well of Eternity, and when he was the self proclaimed ruler of Outland he was just plain bad.

[Deleted]

We killed illidan to save the broken that he had enslaved to fight against the legion. Yes it was a noble cause to fight the legion but noone should be enslaved to fight them. Im pretty sure if wed gone to outland and found illidan leading an army of free people whod volunteered we woulda been joining them too, i sometimes think that would have been better lorewise instead of us attacking black temple and killing illidan we coulda been sent in to help defend it from a demon attack but thats neither here nor there now

[Sal the Shieldhog]

Illidan is like a darker version of Batman (The Dark Knight, not that pussy who runs around in tights with Robin). He does what needs to be done, damn the consequences, yada yada. Everything Illidan did was to further his goal of saving his people and all that. THe ways he did it though, were morally unacceptable to the greater population, sorta like how Batman had that plan to take down the Justice League should they turn evil (See "The Justice League: Doom" for more info).

[cortelas]

Illidan isn't evil. He has never harmed anyone who didn't deserve to be hurt. The problem is that he has no honor. His goal to to make a better and safer world, but he won't honor the enemies he is fighting. Illidan views honor as nothing but a petty distraction from his goals.

Sure illidan has done horrible things, but they were directed at mindless undead, light-crazed zealots, and genocidal demons. He didn't invade azeroth, unleash a plauge on innocents, or attack allies without provocation. Those are all thing his enemies did.

All he wants to do is rule part of a shattered planet infested with demons. That is actually quite noble of him. His methods on the other hand...

[Noobtoober]

Well the only way i see him being brought back is when we go to Argus. He is technically a demon and as far as I can remember demons killed on this plane get sent back to the twisting nether. He also failed kil'jaden. So a rescue mission to save illidan from kil'jadens tortures on Argus doesnt seem too far fetched to me.

[Bisso]

Illidan isn't evil. He has never harmed anyone who didn't deserve to be hurt. The problem is that he has no honor. His goal to to make a better and safer world

You all miss the part that Illidan is a selfish kid. No he is not evil, he just acts like a teenager. He wants to be the savior of the universe, he WANTED to become half demon, not because he is evil, but because he felt like it was the logical thing to do to be the super hero again.

For what he did in TBC, well, I can't really give all credits to it, but at the end of The Frozen throne, Illidan gets threatened by Kil'Jaeden. There is a good chance that his actions were somewhat "forced" by that threat.

Illidan is alive.

[Yig]

No, he was never evil. He was selfish, he was arrogant, and later he was insane. But he was never evil.

But if he comes back, he's going to need to calm down and apologize for what he's done and not be insane anymore.

I predict he was either bound to the Legion when he consumed Guldan's skull, and he went to the Legion when he was killed in OUtland, where he has been tortured by Kiljaeden ala Nerzhul all this time, which could do a lot to make a guy turn a new leaf.

Or he used the Reliquary of Souls to back up his life force like a save point.

[StationaryHawk]

Illidan isn't evil. He has never harmed anyone who didn't deserve to be hurt. The problem is that he has no honor. His goal to to make a better and safer world, but he won't honor the enemies he is fighting. Illidan views honor as nothing but a petty distraction from his goals.

During the War of the Ancients, Illidan's chaotic manner of spell casting got many of his own men killed.

Regardless, he is not evil. He is misguided and somewhat insane. His intentions aren't always bad, but his methods of achieving his goals are questionable.